Monday, April 28, 2008

"The Works" oatmeal cookie bar


A girlfriend of mine just recently had her second baby, Welcome Baby Landon!, and after a few weeks of baby hibernation, we decided to set up a play date at her home for LL and her oldest, Hudson, to play and the mama's to visit! I was planning on bringing over dinner for her (yummy Green Chile Chicken Enchilada Casserole with Black Bean Avocado salad on the side) and wanted to bring over something sweet for dessert, but didn't have much time to bake it.

I went in search for a bar cookie recipe along the lines of my favorite oatmeal cookie, but had a hard time finding one. I gleaned from a few recipes online and winged it - and it came out fantastic! Here is my recipe for "The Works" oatmeal cookie bar with all of my favorite additions, chocolate, coconut and cranberries. Yum!

This recipe is also great for a new mom as oatmeal is known to boost breast milk supply and molasses adds a great iron addition. So rather than think of this as dessert, think of it as health food! :)


Oatmeal Bar cookies with The Works!

1-1/2 cups muscovado or brown sugar, packed
1 cup of your favorite solid/semi-solid fat (i.e. butter or Coconut oil)
2 Tablespoons molasses
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup flaked coconut
8 oz chocolate chips or chocolate bar cut into small pieces
3/4 cups dried cranberries

In a large bowl cream sugar and fat until light and fluffy. Add molasses, vanilla and eggs, blend well. Add oats, flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and mix well. Stir in coconut, chocolate and dried cranberries.

Bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit in a greased 13"x9"x2" pan. Allow to cool and cut into squares. Enjoy!

2/09 Update: I just recently made this recipe again but added 1/2 cup of all-natural peanut butter (creamy or chunky, whatever you have in your cupboard) in when I added the molasses, and omitted the cranberries. I also added about 1/4 cup extra flour to augment the additional liquid factor and baked them for a bit longer, about 35 minutes. The result? YUM!!! Another new favorite!


1 comments:

Jessica said...

I am excited to try your recipe...sounds yummy! I got the link from nourishing gourmet and was curious about if it would work it you soaked the grains...